Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Belite Aluminum Ultralight Aircraft Cabin Construction, #5

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This post is #5 in a series of articles on how to assemble a Belite Ultralight Aircraft cabin using aluminum.

Post #4 in this series is HERE.
Post #3 in this series is HERE.
Post #2 in this series is HERE.
Post #1 in this series is HERE.

Let's jump right in... It's looking more and more like a real airplane cabin all the time.

After deburring the top rear skin, clamp it in place:

Clamp the top rear skin in place.

Another view of clamped top rear skin.

Then proceed to clecos and riveting the skin in place.

Rear skin attached with rivets.

Rear skin fully attached with rivets.

If you haven't already, install remainder of rivets along each top side of cabin. Please note and install extra rivets as shown in photo below.

Side rivets with extra rivets.

Now it's time to add the top side door skins. Note how they UNDERLAP the star joint on each side. Also note the windshield attachment piece in the following photo, it will be used a little later in the process.

Side skin and windshield attach piece.

Lucky poses.

Front of side skin, with star joint underlapping clearly visible.

Alignment of side skin, viewed from front.

Rear view. If all is done perfectly, the rear corner has a nice sharp corner.